Syringe assemblies comprising plastic syringe holders or barrels adapted to receive and support glass cartridges containing medicaments have heretofore been developed for use in the medical field. U.S. Pat. No. 3,811,411 issued to Sarnoff, U.S. Pat. No. 3,884,229 issued to Raines, et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 3,895,633 issued to Bartner, et al. are all directed to syringe assemblies of the type just described. In all three patents, the glass cartridges are inserted into the syringe holders and engaged by retaining means. A stoppered open end in each glass cartridge is designed to engage an inner needle projecting into the interior of the syringe holder. The inner needle may simply be formed from the inner end of the cannula needle itself, as in the aforementioned Sarnoff patent, or it may be formed as part of an intermediate "transfer"-type needle structure as in the Raines, et al. and Bartner, et al. patents.
Prior art syringe holders such as those discussed above serve a beneficial purpose by combining the advantages of storing medicaments in chemically inert glass cartridges with the advantages of using inexpensive, disposable plastic syringes to administer the medicament to patients. Unfortunately, these advantages are not fully exploited, inasmuch as the prior art glass cartridges must be specially manufactured to fit the syringe holders, and attendant increases in the cost of the syringe assemblies offsets somewhat the savings realized by constructing the syringe holders out of plastic. For this reason, many chemically-active medicaments are still packaged in conventional glass syringes, i.e., glass syringes having hypodermic needles or cannulas affixed thereto. The prior art does not, however provide plastic syringe holders designed to fit over conventional glass syringes.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide a plastic syringe holder into which a conventional glass syringe may be inserted.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a syringe holder in the form of a plastic sleeve structure adapted to fit over a glass hypodermic syringe, wherein the plastic sleeve structure is constructed with large flanges for the purpose of increasing the finger grip area otherwise associated with conventional glass syringes.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide a plastic sleeve structure capable of fitting over a glass hypodermic syringe having a luer tip wherein a threaded section at one end of the sleeve structure furnishes positive locking for the hypodermic needle mounted onto the luer tip of the glass syringe.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a plastic syringe holder having integrally formed snap-style tabs for retaining a glass hypodermic syringe therein.
These and other objects of the present invention are accomplished by a disposable plastic syringe sleeve adapted to receive a conventional, luer-tipped glass syringe. Snap-style tabs on the plastic sleeve grip the flange of the glass syringe, thereby retaining the glass syringe inside the plastic sleeve. A threaded section on the plastic sleeve functions in combination with the luer tip of the syringe to provide positive locking for the syringe hypodermic needle. In addition, an enlarged flange area is formed on the plastic sleeve adjacent the snap-style tabs to provide a relatively large finger grip for the person administering medicine from the glass syringe.